First Morph, Redux
by Morathor
Summary: An alien scientist asks five teenagers to save their world.  An alternate universe retelling of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, season one.  Rated for implied violence.
1. Chapter 1 First Meeting

It was 12:06, according to the bright red numbers that shone in the dark room. It was a perfectly ordinary bedroom by any account; neat, but still lived in, the hamper slightly overstuffed with dirty clothes, a few band posters on the walls. In the bed, a girl of about sixteen or seventeen mumbled in her sleep, her wavy dark hair plastered to her face with sweat.

"_Dad!" she shouted in horror, as a horrific creature loomed over her father. She wanted to help him, but she didn't know what that thing was, how dangerous it might have been… then again, if she waited too long, it would be too late._

_This chain of thought was interrupted by the familiar voice of her history teacher. "Vivian…" The tall woman pulled a small white device out of the pocket of her slacks-it was about the size of a cell phone, with some kind of switch on the side. "Do you want the power to help him?"_

"_I…" Vivian bit her lip. It wasn't that she didn't trust her teacher-she was intelligent and engaging, there for her students when they needed help with their work or with anything at all. But what was she talking about? Vivian didn't want to agree to something when she didn't know exactly what she was getting herself into…_

_Then her father cried out in fear. Her eyes narrowed and she held out her hand. "What do I do?"_

* * *

><p>A few miles away, on the third floor of an apartment building, moonlight poured through an open window and glinted off the golden paint of plastic trophies-a carefully arranged line of them, proclaiming proficiency in a number of sports. There were two beds in the room, and in one of them a young man whose long limbs barely fit in the bed groaned quietly.<p>

_He stood between a giant creature and his trembling little brother, arms spread wide. "Just walk away," he told the creature, trying as best he could to sound threatening._

_The creature's response was to swat him aside with one massive claw. He hit the ground, coughing up blood as his vision spun. Gasping for air, he realized he was lying at the feet of a man in cleats and shorts._

"_Stephen," said his soccer coach, reaching down a hand to help him up. In his other hand the man held a small green box. "Do you want the power to help him?"_

_Stephen took his coach's hand. "Of course," he said._

* * *

><p>On the other side of town, in a small one-story house, a door creaked quietly as a middle aged woman peeked into a bedroom; sighed at the disarray, the books and worksheets scattered on the floor, then smiled fondly at the teenaged boy in the bed as he tangled his fingers in the sheets.<p>

_He was running towards a monster that was advancing on his aunt. He had no plans, beyond perhaps distracting the creature long enough for her to get away. But before he could throw himself at the creature, a strong hand took hold of his arm. He turned to face a man who looked very much like himself, if a few years older and dressed more formally._

"_Teddy," said his brother, holding up a small blue machine, perhaps the size of a pack of cigarettes. "Do you want the power to help her?"_

_Teddy glanced at his terrified aunt for a moment, then turned back to his brother and held out his hand without a word._

In the next town over, there was a clatter as the flailing arm of a girl in bed knocked over a handful of action figures-row after row of them cluttered the cramped room in the tiny house. Tangled in her sheets, she struggled in her sleep to get free and fell off the bed without waking.

"_Do you speak our language? Are you lost?" For all that the creature looming over her friend appeared horrific and dangerous, she wasn't entirely certain its intentions were hostile until it turned and slashed at her. She tried to jump away but it was quick; even though its blow only nicked her head, she saw stars for a moment. Dazed, she reached up to touch the spot where it had hit her. Her hair was matting with blood._

"_Isabelle." It was her father, standing next to her. He squatted down and offered her a small black contraption. "Do you want the power to help her?"_

"_Cool!" Isabelle eagerly reached for the device. "How does it work?"_

* * *

><p>A few blocks away, in a pristine, spartan room, the wall shook slightly as a fist pounded against it and a bit of dust sprinkled down from the one decoration in the room-a display case, mounted against the wall, containing an assortment of practice weapons and a belt of thick brown cloth. The boy in the bed dropped his hand, muttering.<p>

_He didn't like his sister, he really didn't, she was annoying as anything. But now she was screaming, and he could see why-that monster scared him as well. So he ran towards the beast and the child. There was a man standing in his way, wearing a tank top and shorts with a black obi tied around his waist, who held up a small red box. "Ryan… do you-"_

_Ryan pushed past his former teacher and continued his charge at the creature._

With a loud gasp Ryan opened his eyes. He shook his head from side to side, before throwing his covers off and sitting up. As his heavy panting began to normalize, he ran a hand through his sweat-drenched hair.

Only half awake, he managed to put together a somewhat coherent thought. "Nightmare," he muttered, before letting himself fall back into bed.

* * *

><p>Isabelle blinked and looked around her. She'd been in the bathroom, washing her hands. Then she'd opened the door to leave, there had been a roar like plunging her face into running water, and everything had gone dark.<p>

Well, not dark. The room was not lit, conventionally speaking, but it was not dark either. Various monitors glowed with complex displays, control panels flashed with inscrutable symbols. A small mechanical figure stood at one of the panels. A symbol in its chest glowed dimly, lights flickered across its face, and it could almost be considered a light source itself.

"Please wait a moment," the robot said in a high, tinny voice. "We need all five before we can proceed."

Isabelle took a step forward. "Proceed with what?" She flinched at a loud pop, and the electrical crackling noise that followed it, as a young black man with sunglasses appeared beside her with a bewildered look.

"Just wait," the robot said. Then it cringed as a harsh voice cut it off, speaking in growls and hisses. The robot replied, apparently in the same tongue. It sounded apologetic. Then there was another pop, another crackle, and a dark-eyed girl stumbled forward. Isabelle wondered if maybe she had been taken in mid-step. She wondered if she should be afraid, but she wasn't.

"And sir." Isabelle wondered who the robot was addressing; it wasn't looking at any of the teenagers. "You might want to load your interface, you'll be needing it in a second." The robot pressed something. With another pop and crackle, another boy appeared, very average but also somewhat familiar, drinking water from a bottle. He dropped it when he saw where he was.

Something caught Isabelle's eye-a mote of pale blue light, drifting in the air. It split in two; Isabelle immediately flashed back to biology class, cell division. The specks of light continued to split, dancing about each other as they began to amass into a distinctive shape. "Just a bit longer…"

The robot tapped its panel sharply, and with another pop a massive boy appeared in the room, glancing around wide-eyed. The robot walked away from the panel and tottered towards the five humans, whirring quietly with each step. Its motions were surprisingly clumsy. "Hello," it said. "Sorry to have to bring you all here. I'm afraid it's a bit of an emergency-"

There was a strange, metallic groan, coming from the mass of light at the center of the room. After a second or so it flowed smoothly into words. "Eeeeeeenough pleasantries." There was a slight synthetic edge to the voice, which was otherwise that of a weary old man. In fact Isabelle could swear she had heard the voice, it seemed so familiar, but she just couldn't place it. The light was still shifting, but it looked almost human in form.

The robot turned a little to face the light. "If I may, sir. Pleasantries become necessities in a strange situation, and this must be very strange for these children. Potentially frightening, I imagine."

Isabelle looked at the other four. None of them seemed as excited by all this as she was, but if they were afraid they weren't showing it. She might have said they looked wary… She looked back at the robot, then over its shoulder at the light.

It was a human man, though he still glowed, and the colors of his skin, hair, and clothes were very faded and tinged with blue. The moment she saw his face, she knew where she knew his voice. He was an actor, pretty famous, she'd seen him in a bunch of movies. She couldn't quite place his name, probably because he never played a lead role. He was always the teacher, the mentor, the quiet supporter.

"Then if my assistant has… allayed your fears, let us get right to the point." The glowing man walked forward, passing through the robot like a ghost. "I need you five to save the world."

* * *

><p>Vivian frowned as she glanced around. <em>Save the world? That sounds… ridiculous.<em> Of course this whole thing was pretty unbelievable. Her first impulse was that this was some sort of elaborate prank. The room, the robot, they would have been expensive and difficult to create, but not impossible. She was less sure about the glowing man who could walk through things-she wasn't aware of any sort of projector that could pull that off. But maybe there was a way. What she couldn't explain, at all, was the fact that she had been walking through an empty hallway one second, and then everything had gone black and there had been a roaring noise, and she had been here. It might have been that someone had managed to knock her out with a sharp blow to the head-unlikely, but wasn't any explanation at this point? But her head didn't hurt and she had carried her momentum, so that probably wasn't it.

That left hallucination, or reality. Hallucination was more likely, of course. But playing along with a hallucination would, at worst, result in her being taken in for appropriate psychiatric treatment. If she treated this like a delusion, and it turned out to be real, it would be a problem.

Vivian looked around at the others. None of them seemed to know what to say, how to react to the strange man's claim. So she stepped forward. "Save the world from what?"

The man crossed his arms. "First and foremost I need to know, would you save your planet if you had the means to do so?"

_Your planet… implying it's not his. An alien, then? _"First and foremost _I _need to know what I would be committing to."

The man's face clouded, and he opened his mouth to reply when the robot interjected.

"It's a wizard," the robot said. "Or whatever you want to call someone who uses magic; we don't know too much about them. They've gained access to the flux grid and using it to build an army."

"Wait, hold on." One of the boys-he was enormous, around six feet tall with bulk to match, but judging by his face Vivian didn't think he was any older than her-took a step forward. She wondered if it was accidental, the way the seemingly casual step put him a little to the right so that the other girl among them was partially behind him. "Flux grid? And that is…?"

The man waved his hand dismissively. "Irrelevant to the matter at hand. If you're not willing to fight for your world, tell me immediately so I can go about finding someone to fill your spot."

"So there's fighting involved." One of the other boys lowered his sunglasses a little to show his grey eyes. It was so dark, though, Vivian wondered why he hadn't made such a move sooner. "Then I definitely need to know more before I can promise anything."

The old man sighed. "We don't have time." He pressed a hand to his head. For a supposed alien, he seemed well versed in human body language. "Fine. Glitch, answer their questions." He waved a hand at the robot.

"Right. Stephen." The robot turned to face the largest of the teens. "The flux grid is an extradimensional energy source. All studies so far suggest that it is unlimited, though the technology-or in some cases, magic-we use to draw its power are finite. It is the only power source we know which provides enough energy for any sort of faster-than-light travel. It is used to travel the galaxies, and it is how we arrived at your world. But the wizard in question is not using it for that. Instead they are creating monstrous creatures, with which they intend to conquer this planet. If they succeed, there's no telling where they'll turn next."

The third boy, white with brown hair and remarkably unremarkable, cleared his throat. "Assuming that's the case, why would you come to us? Did you try calling the army?"

The robot shook its head. "You have to understand, Ryan-"

"And how do you know my name?" The boy crossed his arms.

"Ryan, please. I'll get to that." The robot shook its head as the man began to pace back and forth, walking through the equipment panels, his luminous form scattering and reforming each time. "It's vital that we prevent the armed forces from engaging the wizard's forces. The casualties would be disastrous."

The glowing man turned to face the teenagers. "My ship is a mobile lab, a research vessel, and with one or two slight modifications it's still quite capable of massacring all the armies of this Earth.

The robot flinched. "Sir, that's-"

The man continued. "We made just such modifications, in fact, in an attempt to defeat the sorcerer without involving humans. We failed miserably."

The robot nodded. "Yes. Zaphres was badly wounded in that engagement, which is why I'm manning the controls. Ordinarily he would do it himself, but…" The robot looked over at a small round platform, raised from the floor. There didn't seem to be anything particularly unusual about it, but before Vivian could give it any more thought the robot continued. "The wizard was not entirely unscathed; we project that we set their invasion back at least two months. Two months we've already used up, I'm afraid, which explains why Zaphres is… testy."

The man pounded on a control panel, his fists eerily silent against the surface. "I'm testy because we wasted three weeks on the previous recruits, and now you're wasting _more _time on recruits who haven't said if they'll even help us-"

"I'll help." The boy with the sunglasses put them back over his eyes. "That is, if you need to know right now. I'm in."

"I'm in too," chirped the other girl, standing on her toes-even like that, she was still a bit shorter than Vivian. "I'd like to know why you chose us, in particular, but it can wait a little while."

"Really, you don't need to worry about him," the robot held up its hands. "Time is short, but not that short. You don't have to leap in without knowing all the facts."

"I'm in," said the tall boy-Stephen, the robot had called him. "But go on with your explanation."

The robot looked at Vivian and the third boy (Ryan?) for a moment, before shaking its head. "We've built new equipment, weapon systems, specifically for combat. Specifically to fight this wizard. There are five sets; each depends on the other four to reach its full potential. Hence the five of you."

"Your boss mentioned previous recruits," said Vivian. "Did they die?"

"Oh! No no no. No, they're all fine, they just… we selected five men and women, soldiers from the military forces of your world, all elites with bright futures. People who already had military training would be more prepared for battle. We also thought it might help us to keep the rest of the armed forces out of the conflict-we might be able to get them recognized or sanctioned as a special task force, that was the plan. But they were too old." The robot hung its head. "The equipment we designed depends heavily on synchronization with the user's brain, but the more developed brain of an adult doesn't adapt well . They spent three weeks training to use that equipment, and every day their synchronization rate was going down. We tried to fix it, but we couldn't find anything…"

"Is that why you picked us? A bunch of high school kids?" She glanced at Stephen. "Or are you a bit older than that?"

"I'm sixteen," he replied. Vivian wondered if the tint of red on his cheeks was her imagination; it was dark after all.

"Honestly I'm not sure you're young enough either," the robot said. "You tested well initially but it might go downhill from here… but I don't think anyone younger could cope with this. You're all handling this situation remarkably well, I must say."

Vivian almost told the robot that she was strongly considering the possibility that this was a hallucination, but something else he said caught her ear. "What tests? We haven't tested anything yet…"

"It was a simulation projected into your unconscious. Each of you had a dream in the past few days, where a monster was attacking somebody you loved. And somebody you trusted offered you-"

"The power to save them!" The other girl pushed past Stephen, her eyes bright with excitement. "I remember that dream." Vivian closed her eyes; she didn't really remember a dream like that, but it did sound sort of familiar. "So, that was some sort of test, then?"

The robot nodded. "We projected the simulation as far as we could-about thirty miles from our current location. Everyone in that radius who was capable of synchronizing with the equipment had the dream. We set up a basic premise and let your subconscious fill in some of the details. Then we watched every dream, hundreds of children and teenagers and a handful of adults." The robot took a step forward, spreading its arms as if to welcome them-or was it pleading? "We chose the five of you."

"And two of you haven't said whether you're going to help or not, and if you wouldn't mind I'd like to know." Zaphres made a sweeping gesture with his arm. "We don't have much time to find replacements as it is-"

"I'll do it," Vivian said. _If this doesn't turn out to be all in my head, anyway. And assuming it's not some sort of elaborate con. _"This sounds like it's not going to be a simple conflict. This is going to be a war, isn't it?" She looked from robot to man, and both avoided her eyes. "And I assume it carries the risk of dying. But if we do nothing, it sounds like we'll die for sure."

The robot looked at the man, then back to Vivian. "Well, I suppose it's possible you may survive under the wizard's rule-"

"Under the rule of a tyrannical conqueror?" Vivian brushed some of her hair out of her face. "Never. I think I'd rather die fighting, thanks. Let's get started."

"I hate to be the one making delays now," said Zaphres. "But we can't proceed just yet. Ryan? Are you with us?"

The brown-haired boy looked around at the others, then back at Zaphres. "Do you even have to ask?" He hung his head. "Of course not. Find someone else."


	2. Chapter 2  First Blood

"Of course not. Find someone else."

Teddy didn't know anything about this Ryan, but just the fact that he had been chosen along with the rest of them… Teddy had assumed he was the sort of guy who would step up to a threat like this. It was a bit jarring.

Zaphres, however, didn't seem surprised at all. "Right then. Glitch, send him home. Get that other fellow-"

A loud, piercing wail filled the room, interrupting Zaphres. Teddy clapped his hands over his ears. "What is that?"

"An alarm." Glitch hurried over to a control panel and began fiddling with it; one of the displays lit up with an image of the Earth, possibly seen from a satellite. The image pulled in closer, spinning unsettlingly as it did. It was hard to make out any details, but Teddy thought he saw it closing in on North America, the west coast. Finally the image came to a stop, and the sound died down.

Vivian took a step towards the monitor. "That's LA airport, isn't it?" Teddy was a bit surprised she could recognize it so easily. The place was a wreck. The cause of this was pretty obvious; the place was overrun by strange creatures. They were ants, basically, with oversized mandibles, made of polished gray stone and the size of German shepherds. Their every step left holes in the pavement, and Teddy winced as one of them headbutted a car, flipping it over. There was a man underneath the truck; Teddy looked away but the images that flooded his mind were probably worse than if he had watched.

Isabelle put her hands over her mouth. "An all-out attack? Already? I thought they were rebuilding their forces-"

"This is nowhere close to all out, Isabelle." Zaphres looked up at the screen. "These are the sorcerer's crudest creations, his weakest footsoldiers." Teddy winced as one of them plowed through a steel support column like it wasn't even there. "Mass-produced, mindless automata. I believe our foe is simply testing the water, seeing if I will rise to challenge him again, or whether I am defeated."

"Are the weapons you've designed capable of fighting those creatures?" Vivian's voice was steady despite the carnage.

Glitch threw its arms up. "At full power? A cakewalk. But without any training or experience? You'll be running the equipment at _maybe _half power, and if we only sent out four-"

Zaphres began talking over the robot. "And once we've sent you in, it is unlikely we can retrieve you in case the worst -"

"Doesn't matter," Teddy said, cutting them both off. He looked up at the monitor. "People are dying. We have to try."

Stephen nodded. "We agreed to fight when we were needed. We're needed. Let's go." He turned to Ryan. "Are you coming?"

Ryan lowered his head, his bangs hanging over his eyes. "I can't," he said.

"Wait a moment." Vivian turned to Glitch. "You said the equipment-"

"We don't have a moment!" Isabelle's vehemence took Teddy completely off guard. Her green eyes were wide, and glistened with a hint of coming tears. "We have to go!" She turned to Zaphres. "Give us the weapons."

"Actually, that's my job." Glitch hurried over to one of the walls, opening a panel. "Zaphres doesn't have any hands at the moment…" It brought back a small tray with five brightly colored boxes on it: white, black, red, blue, and green. Each had a switch on the side. "Press the box to your navel and slide the switch." It handed the devices out to the four of them. When only the red one was left on the tray, it glanced at Ryan, who turned away from its gaze. It sighed. "I should warn you, the activation will hurt. Less so as you become properly synchronized-"

"Fine time to mention it," Vivian said, before flipping the switch.

* * *

><p>It really did hurt. Stephen's head throbbed, every muscle in his body shuddered and every nerve burned. He clenched his jaw, trying not to cry out, but he couldn't help shouting. At least he wasn't alone; both of the girls yelled, and Teddy gave a muffled whimper. The burning gave way to pressure, like his entire body being crushed in a vice, then that died down. He gasped for air, only realizing as he inhaled that he had been holding his breath. He glanced around.<p>

One of the other three had fallen to their hands and knees. It was one of the girls but it was hard to tell which because all of them were wearing helmets, along with tight bodysuits. Matching uniforms in three colors-Teddy in blue, the girl on her feet in black, and the girl who was slowly getting up in white. Stephen looked down at himself, holding out his hands. He seemed to be wearing the same uniform in green; the same white gloves and boots, the same golden insignia on the white chest. He reached up to touch his face and found a hard, blocky helmet under his fingers. He felt like he should have noticed that earlier, but there was almost no weight to it, no sense of confinement. It didn't narrow his vision, it didn't make it hard to breath or turn his head. The rest of the suit, too, felt practically as though it wasn't there. It was a bit embarrassing.

"This is a bit underwhelming." Vivian's voice came clearly through the white helmet. "That's a very painful procedure just to change clothes. Do these provide any sort of protection? Are there any of weapons we can use?"

"The suits will provide a high level of protection," said Glitch, "but they're not at full power yet so you'll need to take care. They'll also enhance your speed, strength, reflexes-the pain you felt was from the suit integrating with your muscles and nervous system. There are a variety of other features we don't have time to go into right now-"

"You're right," said Teddy. "We don't. How quickly can you get us to LA?"

"This quickly," said Glitch, and then the roaring sound that Stephen had heard before he first appeared in the dark lab was back. When it stopped, he was standing on a sidewalk in bright sunlight. As his eyes adjusted, he saw that he was at the scene that had been shown on the monitor-LA airport in ruins, people screaming and sirens wailing, large stone bugs crawling about. Some of those bugs had apparently noticed the new arrivals, and were advancing on him and the other three.

None of them said anything at first. They just charged at the nearest creatures and attacked them. The bugs' height was troublesome, and Stephen thought it might be easier to fight something more human-like, or at least human sized. But, thankfully, the creatures didn't seem to be very tough. The first time he stomped on one, it felt more like a clod of dirt crumbling under his foot than any sort of stone cracking. Yet the pavement shattered from the stress of having the bug's head ground against it.

Ten or fifteen seconds of frenzied kicking and awkward stomping was enough for the four teens to reduce that small group of bugs to inert stone. As Stephen looked up, panting slightly, he realized that it had also been enough time to attract the attention of more of the creatures, who were now approaching wherever he looked. He felt his stomach twist. He wasn't afraid, or rather, he'd tucked his fear away in some corner of his brain where he barely noticed it. But he didn't know what to _do_. He took a tentative step forward, then stepped back. He glanced around, not entirely sure what he was looking for-high ground to make a stand from, a particularly dense clump of bugs to attack, anything that would give him some idea how he should be fighting.

"We should spread out," said Vivian, "but not too much." The quiet confidence in her voice insinuated itself into Stephen's brain, giving solid ground and a clear path to his meandering thoughts. Surveying the area, Vivian continued, "It looks like there's a few dozen of them, at least around here…"

Stephen flinched as Zaphres' voice was suddenly speaking into his ear. "There are a total of thirty four constructs advancing on your position."

"Right. Thanks for that." Vivian bent down to pick up a chunk of one of the ants they had smashed and hurled it at one of the approaching horde. She missed, leaving a crater in the asphalt, and immediately reached down to pick up another chunk.

Stephen followed her example. They all did. He hit most of his targets, usually taking off a leg or two and leaving them limping. The others didn't do so well at first, but as the bugs got closer they crowded together more and it was harder to miss. Isabelle's throws were particularly impressive, often shattering a creature completely and going on to smash into the one behind it.

But as the ants got closer, they went back to their kicking and stomping. There were still too many targets, crowded too close together, to miss, but there were also too many ants to make much headway. More were streaming in from other parts of the airport, it seemed. And Vivian appeared to be having a hard time doing more than pushing the creatures around.

Stephen barely noticed that he was being pushed back until his shoulder bumped Vivian's. He glanced in the other direction, and Isabelle was not far away. Teddy, on the other hand, was still in his original position. No, he was farther away; he was nimbly evading the bugs' snapping mandibles, but he was now stranded amidst in an ocean of the creatures.

"Get over here!" shouted Isabelle, taking a step towards him but backing off as the ants closed in on her.

"I'm working on it!" Teddy replied. But apparently the ants had some intelligence, because as Teddy tried to move back towards Stephen and the others there was always a stone maw snapping hungrily at him.

"Then we go to him," said Vivian. "But carefully. You two face front, I'll watch our backs." The trio fought their way towards Teddy, but it was like wading upstream through waist-high water, and they were being careless. Stephen felt several of the bugs clamp onto his legs, and while he managed to get them off before they could really injure him, the pain was starting to slow him down. He was going to be a mass of bruises from waist to ankles after this. That all-but-forgotten corner of his mind whispered, _if there is an after this_.

* * *

><p>Ryan had not been sent home. Glitch had said putting him back without his sudden appearance being witnessed would take too much time. The battle in LA was the priority, and Ryan's return to school could wait. Which may have been true, but Ryan suspected that what Glitch really wanted was for Ryan to feel guilty and agree to fight. And it was working, sort of. Ryan did feel really bad that he couldn't help them, but there it was: he couldn't. Why these people thought he could was beyond him.<p>

Ryan tried not to look at the screen, but occasionally the voices of Glitch, Zaphres, or one of the four teens drew his attention back. They seemed to be doing okay, at least at first. Then suddenly there was shouting-was one of those voices a bit familiar?-and suddenly it had all gone wrong. He couldn't begin to count the ants now, there must have been a hundred or more. In the ocean of gray, of insect limbs and clacking mandibles, was an island of blue, one of the teenagers separated from the others. The rest were trying to make their way towards him, but they weren't making much progress. Alarms were flaring, and Glitch and Zaphres were snarling at each other in their language. He pressed his hands to his ears, trying to drown it out and feeling like a child as he did so, before he stood up and kicked one of the control panels. Zaphres turned towards him.

"Didn't you say you had someone else who could help? What happened to that 'other fellow' you were talking about?"

Zaphres glanced back at the screen, then back at Ryan. "Yes," he said, far too calmly. "There is another human I think may be able to help." He started to turn back to the screen, as if that was all he had to say about that.

"Well have you tried calling him in? You said you're too busy to send me away, but surely you're not too busy to get help? They're in trouble! You said that you need all five, for them to work at full power, right?"

"Unless you're volunteering," snapped Glitch, its voice sounding remarkably like a violin string being stretched to its breaking point, "shut up."

"Why didn't you bring him here in the first place? Why did you think I'd be able to help?"

"I didn't," said Zaphres, not looking away from the screen. "It doesn't matter right now. The man in question is only compatible with one of the five sets of equipment, and it's already in use. The other four have a little more leeway, so we could work with that, but if we called Benjamin in now he couldn't do a thing."

Ryan stared at the screen. He watched the girl in white twist to one side to avoid being bitten, leaving just enough of a gap for the ants to slide in between her and the other two, cutting her off. It took the other two a moment to notice this, and when they did the boy in green froze, glancing back and forth between the two stranded members.

"Just go," she snapped (her voice brought her face back into his mind, and he recalled that her name was Vivian). "Teddy needs you more. Those sparks can't be a good sign." Just as she said this, a few sparks issued from where one of the bugs was trying to crush her hip. She went on as if she hadn't noticed. "Regroup with him, come back for me." She managed to flip the ant over her shoulders and, stomping on its abdomen to hold it in place, tore its head off.

The girl in black pressed on immediately, and for a moment Ryan thought she was going to leave the other boy behind, that they were all going to be stranded and alone. But the boy in green (he was really big, so he had to be, what was the name, Steven?) managed to follow her closely enough.

The alarms were starting to intensify. Glitch babbled for a moment, not in the alien language but in French (though Ryan couldn't understand it, he was barely passing French after all), continuing in English. "Blue and white, they've isolated the two most vulnerable suits."

Zaphres leaned through Glitch, towards the screen. "Do you think it was intentional, or just luck?"

"Hard to say, sir-Osburnweremidwifetomethree-there's no sign that they've done any sort of thorough scan but they might have…" Ryan stopped listening. Glitch had left the case with the last device on one of the control panels. Ryan pulled it out. How did this work? Over the navel, pull the switch? Oh, and apparently it hurt… Ryan squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw.

* * *

><p>Teddy was not screaming. He was very proud of that. He was buried in ant creatures, he was certain his arm was broken, and several other bones seemed to be going that way as well, but he continued to fight as best he could. Really it wasn't much more than squirming. They were everywhere, their jaws gripping every limb like a vice.<p>

Just a few feet away, there was a noise like a firecracker, the sort that explodes more quietly than it ought to and then crackles loudly as the lights flare and sputter. It was the sound of Zaphres' teleporter.

He almost didn't notice it, though; he was too focused on the tingling sensation that felt like it would shake his teeth out of his head. It was like an electrical current going through him, but rather than numbed he felt energized and alive. The ant creatures' jaws were still painful, but the bone crushing pressure was relieved. He tried to jerk his arms from the ants' grip; the creatures were lifted off the ground before being dislodged and falling amidst their cohorts. He sat up, striking at ants with fists and elbows, ignoring the burning pain that lanced through his left arm whenever he hit something. A gloved hand was extended to him; he took it, and a boy in a red uniform hauled him to his feet.

Without exchanging a word, the two of them turned on the ants, smashing a path to Stephen and Isabelle. As they pressed on towards Vivian, most of the ants pulled back, like the parting of the Red Sea. A few still dared to attack, and were quickly crushed.

By the time they reached Vivian, she was standing unsteadily, and Teddy wondered if she had hurt her leg. "Everyone okay?" she asked. "Teddy?"

"Fine," he said, stomping on the head of one of the more daring ants. "And you?"

"Nothing that won't mend," she said, turning around (with a marked limp, Teddy noticed) to face the tide of ants. The creatures milled about for a few seconds, and a few of them began to approach the teens.

There was a blinding flash and a deafening boom. Gradually Zaphres' voice differentiated itself from the ringing of his ears. "-ear me? Isabelle, Theodore, Ryan, please confirm, can you hear me?"

"It's Teddy," he said, looking around. The ruins of LA airport were empty; the ants were gone. "What happened?" But Zaphres ignored him, continuing to ask Isabelle and Ryan if they could hear him, until they each said they could.

Zaphres cleared his throat. "There are no constructs remaining on the airport premises. I assume that the sorcerer chose to withdraw them. You've won."


	3. Chapter 3 First Dilemma

The five appeared in the dark lab, accompanied by the roaring sound to which Vivian was quickly becoming familiar. She found that a bit worrying. She still considered it most likely that this was a hallucination, and her awareness of how surreal it was meant she was not too far gone. She had to hold on to that, at least until she could find a way to confirm whether it was real or not.

The person in red gestured at their helmet. "How do I get it off?" It was the first thing he'd said since he'd appeared at the airport, confirming him to be Ryan-a possibility she had considered, but not been certain of.

"Hold on." Glitch held his hands up. "Before you do that, are any of you injured?"

"Well, we're at least a little bruised. But…"

"I believe my leg is broken," said Vivian. She turned to Teddy. "And you're pretty badly hurt too, aren't you?"

"Fairly," he said.

"We can help you with that," said Zaphres. "If you take off the helmet, the suit's power will be diverted to recovery."

"It may hurt," added Glitch. "You are, after all, completely altering its connection to your nervous system.

Vivian cautiously reached up to her face. She had supposed she was wearing a helmet-the others were, and something had been transmitting Zaphres' voice right to her ear. But she hadn't felt or seen such a thing until she had it under her fingertips. A dreamlike quality, now that she thought about it. She pulled off the helmet and almost fell over. Yeah, that hurt. Teddy leaned against one of the control panels before taking off his own helmet, sagging back as he did.

Ryan crossed his arms. "And I take it off how?"

"Unclasp the belt," said Zaphres.

Ryan looked down and put both hands on the large, golden belt buckle. "I suppose that will hurt too."

"Most likely. Should I assume from your eagerness to disengage the suit that you still do not intend to help us?"

Ryan paused, lifting his fingers a bit off the buckle. "I'm glad I was able to help this time. If even one life was saved by my intervention, I'm glad I did it. But I'm not someone you should be relying on." He unhooked the buckle; his suit evaporated, leaving him to fall to his hands and knees in the clothes he had worn earlier. He looked up at Zaphres and spoke through gritted teeth. "I think you know that."

"Yes, I do," said Zaphres. "Glitch, send him back where you found him."

As Isabelle and Stephen took off their own suits, Glitch fiddled with a control panel, and after a few seconds Ryan disappeared.

Vivian took a deep breath. "The immediate threat is over. The four of us have agreed to fight. I want a full explanation. All the information you have on the enemy. Everything about these suits-"

Zaphres waved his arm to cut her off. "The leading physicists of your world would require years of instruction in flux theory before I could begin to discuss the mechanics of those suits-"

"I don't need to know the technical details. I need to know their capabilities."

"You've seen their capabilities."

"Glitch said we were operating at half-power, at best. I need to know what they're capable of at full power."

"That sounds really fascinating," said Isabelle, "but we've probably been missed by now. How long have we even been gone?"

"About an hour," said Glitch. "It's currently 12:13 AM, Pacific time."

Isabelle's shoulders drooped a bit. "I'm missing lunch."

"This is hardly any time to be worrying about lunch," snapped Zaphres.

Isabelle crossed her arms. "If we were talking about something that could be resolved in a single day, I'd rather skip a few meals than lose my focus. But this could take weeks, months, years… I can't go without food. I can't go without sleep. And I shouldn't make a habit of missing meals. Or classes, for that matter."

Stephen nodded. "When there's an attack, we'll come. We'll try to come in and practice at other times. But we can't just disappear from our lives until this is over."

"Why not? The previous team-"

"They were adults, Zaphres." Glitch stepped between the image of his master and the teenagers. "They were career military. Extended campaigns were already part of their lives. These four must be allowed to maintain their normal lives as much as possible."

Zaphres stepped through the robot. "Why did you all agree to this if you are unwilling to make sacrifices for the good of your world?"

Glitch began to step forward, probably about to say something. Isabelle inhaled suddenly, no doubt drawing breath to shout. Both were silenced by Teddy's quiet voice. "There are sacrifices we will make, and there are sacrifices we won't."

Zaphres lowered his head. "Fine. You're right. The situation is not so desperate that we must completely uproot the lives of five of the bravest people I will ever be privileged to know.

"Four," said Vivian. "I don't think Ryan's coming back."

"We have another potential candidate," said Zaphres. "But that can wait. Isabelle, Stephen, when you're ready Glitch can send you back to your schools. Vivian, Theodore-"

The boy grumbled. "It's Teddy, no one calls me Theodore."

Zaphres ignored him. "You two should probably remain here until you're fully healed, which may take several hours more. It should provide ample time, however, to answer any questions you may have. And then the two of you may relay that information to the others as needed. Now, all of you listen. This is important." The four of them all stood a little straighter as Zaphres looked each of them in the eyes. "It will not be possible to keep a conflict of this scale hidden. The attack today was on most news networks nationwide; your involvement has so far escaped media attention but that obscurity will not last. Let the suits become public figures. The four of you… must remain hidden."

"Obviously." said Isabelle. "We won't tell anyone."

"I did not say that," said Zaphres. "Letting the world at large know who you are is dangerous. Letting your family know may serve to protect them. And it will certainly make it easier to find time for your responsibilities here if you do not do so clandestinely."

Isabelle raised an eyebrow. "So you do want us to tell our parents?"

"I want you each to consider it carefully and come to your own decision. I trust you with the future of this planet, I will trust you also with this."

* * *

><p>It was about four in the afternoon when Ryan walked through the door of his house. As usual, he made a beeline for the stairs, heading to his room and hoping to avoid his sister.<p>

"Ryan! You school called." His father's voice shouldn't have startled him, but it did. It wasn't as though he didn't know the school would have called about his absence. And he had seen them sitting in the front room, waiting for him. It just hadn't really sunken in.

"They said you cut class," his mother said. "Ryan, what-"

"It won't happen again," he said, continuing to his room with barely a break in his stride.

* * *

><p>It was not often that Stephen came home to the united glares of his parents. They stood side by side with identical crossed arms and identical stern glares. Stephen sighed and set down his backpack, closing the door behind him. "This is about missing class today, right?"<p>

"It's good to know we're all on the same page." His mother was trying to keep her expression cold and unforgiving, but by the strain in her voice Stephen knew she was worried. "So. Explain."

Stephen glanced at his father, who remained silent, furrowing his brow and trying to be intimidating. It didn't work very well; just shy of six foot six and spindly as a spider, Stephen's father looked almost comical towering over his five foot four wife.

Stephen reached into his pocket and fingered the device Zaphres had given him. He took a deep breath. "I don't really know where to start."

"Stephen's in trouble," came a half-hearted singsong from the room he shared with his little brother.

His mother's head snapped towards the room, so sharply her dark brown hair almost fell out of its bun. "Héctor! Be quiet!" She turned back to Stephen. "Start with where you were."

"… Los Angeles."

"WHAT?" The entire apartment complex probably heard his father's exclamation. He took a deep breath before continuing more quietly. "What do you mean Los Angeles, you were barely gone for an hour. How could you have driven to LA and back?"

"I didn't drive," Stephen said.

His parents glanced at each other. "Is this a drug thing?" his mother asked. "Listen, you know I smoked my share of el gallo when I was your age, and some of my best pieces in college came from LSD. I understand a little healthy curiosity, but not at school, Stephen."

"It's not a drug thing," he said. "Look, let me just show you." He pulled the device out of his pocket. "Were you watching the news today? Did you hear about what went on at LAX?"

"Some kind of terrorist attack, I think," his father said. He was closely watching the device in Stephen's hands. "But I know you didn't have anything to do with that..."

"I helped stop it," said Stephen, putting the device to his navel and flipping the switch.

* * *

><p>Isabelle opened the door as quietly as she could. She slipped into the house and closed it behind her. Not that she thought her father wouldn't notice her; he would, eventually. But the longer she could put off this confrontation, the better.<p>

"They called me at work, Isabelle."

Isabelle almost jumped when she heard his voice. She slowly turned to face her father, who was standing in the next room. She bit her lip and took a deep breath. "Hi dad. Listen, I can explain."

"What happened?" There was no anger in his voice, or even disappointment. There was blame, but she knew it wasn't directed at her.

"Dad, listen… one of my friends needed my help." She'd been working on this story all afternoon. It still wasn't that good, but she'd concluded that she had to remain as vague as possible. Details could be proven false. Instead she had to focus on a convincing delivery. "She's going through a really hard time right now, and she was-"

"How long did you spend thinking that one up?"

Isabelle tried not to panic. "What?"

He sighed, and Isabelle cringed. It wasn't a sigh of annoyance; it was closer to despair. It wasn't her he was upset with. That might have been better. "If you don't want to talk about it, you should say, 'I don't want to talk about it'."

"Would you actually leave it at that?"

"Well what else can I do? Send you to your room? Deprive you of dinner? What would that accomplish? If you don't want to talk, I can't make you." He probably didn't realize he was twisting the wedding band on his finger, but Isabelle noticed. It wasn't hard to guess the question going through his mind: _Would she have talked to her mother about this?_

It was a fair question, one Isabelle couldn't answer. "Dad, it's not that I-"

Her dad walked into the doorframe and leaned against it. He looked so old, so tired right now. "Was it important?"

"Ah…" She hesitated, then met his gaze. "Yes. It was."

Her father looked into her eyes for what seemed like hours, probing for some hint of deception. Finally he exhaled slowly, relaxing a little. "Your education is important as well. But I'm going to trust your judgment this time." He put his hand on her shoulder. "You're a good girl, Isabelle. I have to believe that."

She put her hand on his and forced a smile. "I won't let you down."

Her father nodded again, then pulled his hand away and walked back into the living room. Soon he would be starting on dinner. Isabelle went into her own room, dropping her backpack on the floor and dropping onto her bed with a heavy thud. She was shaking a little. Could she really do this to her father on a daily basis?

But she had to. It wasn't safe for him to know the truth, not for either of them.

* * *

><p>Vivian closed the front door behind her and leaned against it. School had been over by the time she left the lab. Her parents must have been worried about her. She was pretty worried herself.<p>

"Sweetie?" Her mother's voice came from the living room. Vivian heard her soft steps approaching. She took a deep breath as her mother came to the door, covering her mouth with her hands. "Oh, god, Vivian you're alright."

"I'm… not sure I would say that."

"What do you mean? David! David, come here, Vivian's home!"

There was a muffled thud-her father half-falling from his chair, most likely-and his heavy footsteps thundering down the stairs. "Vivian! Are you alright?"

"Still not sure," she said, trying to force a smile.

Her mother bit her lip and bent down to be eye to eye with her daughter. "Why do you keep saying that?"

"Because today… either the world went crazy, or I did, and I'm still not sure which. Here, let me just…" Vivian reached into her pocket and pulled out the device Zaphres had given her. "What is this, in my hand? Am I holding anything at all?"

Her father's brow furrowed. "Is it a cell phone? It doesn't look like yours, though."

"It's not anything of mine? Anything you recognize? Anything you've even seen before, in a store or something, that I might have taken from someone?"

Her father put a hands on Vivian's shoulder. "Vivian, we know you wouldn't have-"

"But _I _don't know, dad, not for sure. I'm not sure what I did today, so please, humor me until I do. Have you ever seen this before?"

"Can I take a look?" Her father held out his hand.

Vivian hesitated, then held it out to him. "Don't flip the switch. It… might be bad."

Her father turned the device over in his hands, then shook his head. "Never seen one of these before. Can't even imagine what it's for." He handed it back to Vivian.

"Okay. And on the news today, was there anything… important? Did something bad happen?"

Her mother shrugged. "Bad things happen on the news all the time-"

"I mean something big."

Her parents looked at each other. "LA airport," said her mom. "There was some kind of attack. A lot of people died. Is that what you were thinking of."

"Yes. One last thing." She put the device against her stomach. "I need you to tell me exactly what happens when I flip the switch."

She fell to her knees, wracked with pain. Was it just her imagination, or was it a little less painful this time? She slowly got to her feet. "...well? Anything?"

Her dad tilted his head to one side. "What are you wearing?"

She almost fell back to her knees. _Oh god... it's all real..._

* * *

><p>Teddy had gotten back to school just as the teachers were starting to leave. He'd managed to meet with most of his teachers, apologize, and find out his homework assignments. That would make things a little easier when he got home. But not much; his aunt was waiting on the porch for him, arms crossed and glaring down at him. He took off his sunglasses before she could tell him to.<p>

"Theodore Geoffrey Miller, what have you gotten yourself into?"

Teddy cringed. He'd known he would be in trouble, but the use of his full name drove it home. "I haven't gotten into anything."

"Don't give me that. You cut school, about half the day. You need to tell me what's going on."

"I'm not sure. I need to sort this out."

"That's not going to cut it, Teddy. What happened, today?"

"…I had to do something. It was important." He sighed. He was getting uncomfortable. He was good with words, really, when he had time to write them down, consider them, rewrite them. But he found that conversations got awkward quickly. He took a deep breath-buying a moment to think. "I didn't get involved with troublemakers and I didn't do anything illegal. I've apologized to my teachers, I've got all my homework assignments. Can we talk about this later?"

His aunt sighed, and he knew he was off the hook for now. "Alright, you go do your homework then. We'll talk more about this later."

"Thanks, auntie." He managed a smile as he gave her a hug. Then he slipped past her and headed upstairs to his room.

_What… am I going to tell her?_


End file.
